Now in their 28th year, the VLV Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting are nominated and voted for by VLV members and acknowledge excellence in public service broadcasting in the UK.
The awards for programmes broadcast in 2019 were due to be presented by Steve Punt of Radio 4’s The Now Show at our Spring Conference in April, but the ceremony was cancelled because of coronavirus restrictions. We had hoped to celebrate them at the Autumn Conference, but that will now not be possible. Under these circumstances we have decided to publish the names of the winners and hope that in 2021 we might be able to reinstate our normal awards ceremony on 29 April.
The winners include BBC Europe Editor, Katya Adler, and BBC World At One presenter, Sarah Montague, drama Gentleman Jack, radio comedy series The Unbelievable Truth and documentary series The Americas with Simon Reeve. News and current affairs programmes featured strongly among the winners this year with honours going to PM, Dispatches and two children’s series, Newsround, which receives the Naomi Sargant award for its longstanding work in bringing news to children, and Sky News’/Sky Kids’ children’s news series FYI.
There was, as ever, fierce competition with many wonderful programmes and contributors to choose from. Huge congratulations to all those involved in bringing such high quality broadcasting to audiences around the UK.
Best TV Drama Programme Gentleman Jack, BBC One
Best TV News and Factual Programme Dispatches, Channel 4
Best TV Arts and Entertainment Programme Janet Baker in Her Own Words, BBC Four
Best TV Children’s Programme FYI, Sky News/Sky Kids
Best TV Individual Contributor Katya Adler
Best Radio Drama Middlemarch, Radio 4
Best Radio News and Factual Programme PM, Radio 4
Best Radio Music and Arts Programme Words and Music, Radio 3
Best Radio Individual Contributor Sarah Montague
Award for International Content (VLV & IBT) The Americas with Simon Reeve, BBC Two
Best Comedy Programme (Radio and Television) The Unbelievable Truth, Radio 4
Best Podcast Award Brexitcast (now called Newscast), BBC Radio 5 Live/BBC News
Naomi Sargant Award Newsround, CBBC
Colin Browne, Chairman of VLV, said “These awards demonstrate that 2019 was a year in which British broadcasters provided a huge range of quality and diverse programmes for listeners and viewers. They include comedies, drama and factual programmes as well as notably featuring high quality news journalism at a time when reliable, accurate news is being valued more highly than ever.”
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